1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pointing input device and method, a pointer control device and method and an image pattern generation device and method, and more particularly, to a pointing input device and method, a pointer control device and method, and an image pattern generation device and method which move a mouse pointer displayed in a display region according to the movement of a location pointed at by the pointing input device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Direct pointing input devices are input devices which can extract a display region of a display device such as a digital television (TV), detect the location of a portion on the screen currently being pointed at by a pointer, and control the location of the pointer displayed on the screen of the display device according to the results of the detection.
Direct pointing input devices use a direct mapping method by which a pointer is displayed at a place pointed at by a user and thus can manipulate the location of a pointer more quickly and easily than pointing input devices such as mouses or keypads which use a relative mapping method. Also, direct pointing input devices can allow a user to control the location of a pointer from a distance.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2004-025992 discloses an apparatus and method for determining the location of a mouse-laser pointer which can function as a mouse as well as a laser pointer. In this invention, the location of the mouse-laser pointer is determined based on a sum image reflected by a screen. The sum image denotes a sum of an image formed on a screen after being projected by a projector and a laser image formed on the screen after being projected by a laser pointer. After the image, which is formed on the screen and included in the sum image, is compared with a computer image, the location of the mouse-laser pointer is determined based on the location of a laser image included in the sum image. Therefore, a lot of computation may be required for image comparison.
In this regard, it is required to develop a method of controlling or efficiently selecting a graphic object, which exists in a display region, according to the movement of a pointer of a pointing input device.